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Psychoactive Mushrooms May Get a Legalization Vote in Oregon in 2020

Trace William Cowen is a writer based in Los Angeles. He tweets with dramatic irregularity here.

Dec 05, 2018

Image via Getty/Photofusion/Universal Images Group

Oregon, a state where it's been recreationally legal to consume savory marijuana since 2015, may soon be opening similarly life-improving gates of opportunity for psilocybin passengers.

Oregon's secretary of state has approved language for a ballot initiative that would decriminalize possession of psilocybin and allow legal shroom growth, according to a report hopefully filed with glee by Rolling Stone Tuesday. The ultimate goal, per a statement from the 2020 Psilocybin Service Initiative of Oregon on the group's official website, is to put forth a "therapeutic model" for the use of psilocybin.

"The intent of the 2020 Psilocybin Service Initiative of Oregon is to advance a breakthrough therapeutic model currently being perfected in research settings at top universities around the world. The service model involves a sequence of facilitated sessions, including assessment and preparation, psilocybin administration, and integration afterwards. We envision a community-based framework, where licensed providers, along with licensed producers of psilocybin mushrooms, blaze trails in Oregon in accordance with evolving practice standards." – PSI 2020 Chief Petitioners Tom and Sheri Eckert

As with previous efforts in California and Denver at the state and city levels, respectively, the initiative has to gain a certain number of signatures before it lands in the hands of voters in 2020. For Oregon's shroom salvation, supporters will need to bag at least 117,578 names. Both the California and Denver campaigns ultimately came up short, though their local support levels were praised by supporters as being a sign that continued widespread adoption of shrooms-related methods would be seen in the years ahead.

Despite their potentially groundbreaking benefits for those struggling with everything from depression to addiction, psychedelic mushrooms are treated at the federal level as if they were fucking heroin. Researches from Johns Hopkins University suggested earlier this year that the shrooms should be reclassified so that their medical benefits could be fully explored and relayed to those in need.

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Of course, in an ideal world—the one where this doesn't happen—we wouldn't have to have these kinds of conversations, as all so-called "drugs" would be at least decriminalized. That's ultimately the only humane option.